


River of Tears

by aprettyboy



Category: One Piece
Genre: I just want them to be happy, M/M, Post-Wano Arc (One Piece)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:06:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29648994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aprettyboy/pseuds/aprettyboy
Summary: Summary: So I was watching One Piece and I finally found out the truth about smiles and I wanted to write something to appease my sad little heart. They may not get a happy ending but I want to write one as best as I can. I will particularly focus on this from POV of Killer and Eustass Kidd. I’m not up to date and this will be in the future so of course some things won’t be canon. Spoilers though if you havent read/watched the Wano arc ! I dont know how long I will make this but definitely no longer than two chapters as I have other priorities.Let me know if you like it !
Relationships: Eustass Kid/Killer
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	River of Tears

Summary: So I was watching One Piece and I finally found out the truth about smiles and I wanted to write something to appease my sad little heart. They may not get a happy ending but I want to write one as best as I can. I will particularly focus on this from POV of Killer and Eustass Kidd. I’m not up to date and this will be in the future so of course some things won’t be canon. Spoilers though if you havent read/watched the Wano arc !

  
  


“Don’t...make fun of his laugh.. !”, Eustass used his metal hand to punch one of the pirates in the face of the ship they invaded and they all went silent.    
  
Eustass grit his teeth.

It had been a year since they defeated Kaido and there was still no cure to the un-ending curse that the smile fruit placed upon people that ate it. Eustass had to become adjusted to the other’s laugh. A laugh that Killer despised, no,  _ loathed,  _ so much he even chose to put a mask on his face.   
  
Even if it was the same Killer, Eustass knew that this wasn’t what the man wanted. Killer had resumed his old clothes, scythes, his place in Kidd’s crew. Everything had returned to normal except the man’s laugh. Eustass still held out hope that there was some cure to fix what Kaido had done to Killer. 

Eustass...he swore himself off from alliances. People always betrayed him and pirates never had any interests but their own. However, when one of the strawhat pirates said that there could be a cure out there, Eustass didn’t hesitate. He didn’t question the terms, the details, nothing.

He squeezed the hand of Luffy tight and looked him dead in the eye. It was a gaze so sharp that his eyes glistened in a line of red so that the next words that came out of his mouth meant that he truly meant it,”As long as Killer is one of the first people that gets it, I’m in. Whatever ingredients you need, I’ll get. Whoever you need to kill...I’ll  _ slaughter.” _

Some of the strawhat pirates, mainly Chopper and Usopp, screamed and hugged each other as they stared at Eustass and spoke rather loudly,”s-s-s-s-so th..thats..th..the eyes of a..k-killer..”, Chopper said. Zoro walked up near Luffy, not saying anything, but merely asserting his presence. 

Eustass had looked at Chopper, which only caused the reindeer to squeal, his face turning to blue,”You said there could be a cure right?”, Eustass asked. Chopper gulped and nodded his head,”y..yes..since its not a natural devil-”   
  
“Then find it. The deal has been made,” Eustass said as he turned around and looked at Killer, his eyes turning sad for a bit.

Chopper eyes popped out as he spoke,” He didn’t let me finish..wh..what if I cant the find the cure..”, Chopper was shaking in his boots until Luffy turned to him with a smile,” what are you saying Chopper? When we hit the virus in udon you came up with a cure in just an hour, something you knew completely nothing about. If anyone can find a cure its someone like you ! your skills are amazing !”, he said.

The thing was, Chopper was easy to please. The reindeer blushed and waved Luffy off,”hehe..oh thought..it was nothing really..”, he said with a smile. It was true though that there could possibly be a cure. Smile wasn’t a normal devil fruit. It was artificially made which mean that there  _ were _ components that determined certain factors and changes it made to another’s body. Science went into this and if there was one thing Chopper was good at, it was science. 

That was the end of that interaction and it had been a year since. The strawhat pirates sent orders by snail every couple months or so about ingredients they might need or people.

One of the most difficult things they had to acquire was Caesar Clown, one of the mad mans behind the creation of the smile fruit. Chopper had told Eustass that the recipe for the fruit was deleted and the only one who knew it well was one of the scientists behind the fruit. 

Chopper expressed that he would have got more information out of the clown when they had him if they knew of the other horrible deeds that his handiwork had caused. It didn’t matter what the other said Eustass needed to get, he would get it. 

Getting Caesar was a lot of work but, eventually, he acquired the man and dropped him off with a strawhat at a rendezvous point. That was about 7 months ago and had asked Law, to which he gladly agreed, to steal the heart of Caesar Clown. He wouldn’t receive it back until a cure had been made. 

The reason Eustass was on this very pirate ship today was to procure a rare ingredient from a flower called the Blue Magnolia flower. It was a flower that was said to have special healing powers and once cured the blind. They also used the tears of mansherry but it wasn’t powerful enough. The fact that they had to go through such lengths just to find a cure mad Kid’s blood boil with anger and Caesar may have been safe for now but Kid had every intention on killing the man and he still does. 

After Eustass got the flower, he didn’t do anything else to the pirate ship. He would have killed them all for laughing at Killer but the Strawhats only wanted him to get the flower. Tch. Them and their stupid morals. 

Eustass stormed back to his ship and went to sit down in his office. Killer sat in front of him, chuckling as Eustass spoke,”I think we’re close Killer...we can cure you.” Killer’s laughter got bigger and Eustass looked at him, then picked up his snail phone.

It took a couple seconds for it to connect to the strawhats,”ya, I got it. You said that was one of the last items right?”, he asked. Chopper spoke,”Ah yes, we believe so...the thing is..um…”, he said, sounding very hesitant. Eustass furrowed his brows,”just spit it out ! didn’t I tell you I would do anything?”, he shouted.    
  
“We need a test subject but...we think this antidote has a 75 percent chance of working. We can’t use it on anyone that has though because in the worst case scenario they will die. We know Luffy would jump at the first chance and some of the villagers but we dont want to risk...…”, Chopper dragged on and Kid could read in between the lines so he filled them in.   
  
”You don’t want to risk offing your captain or the innocent people so you want me to offer first. I already ate a devil fruit, would it still affect me?”, Eustass asked. Chopper spoke into the phone,” Caesar has confirmed you would still get the same symptoms. Why do you make it seem like I’m going to say no. I don’t care as long as you cure killer,” Kid said, without any care for the permanent side effects.    
  
It was a lot to ask of someone, especially with no guarantee it would work. 75 percent chance didn’t sound like such a bad gamble though. Even if he knew they acted like they were pushing the burden onto the Kid, he didn’t think of it as such. He only cared about there being a possible cure for Killer. 

Eustass looked at Killer who, despite laughing, was shaking his head in disagreement. He knew what that meant. Even if the other was laughing, Eustass had been long accustomed to how the other acted and how he even thought. Eustass said he would do anything and that definitely didn’t stop at sacrificing himself. 

“I’ll do it. When its done, I’ll eat it. Do you have a name for it yet?”, Eustass said. 

“Yeah… we..we’re going to call it river of tears”, Chopper said. A smirk went on Eustass’ face as he heard the name.”River of tears huh...I like it…”, he said. 

In his heart, he knew he shouldn’t have been this hopeful and he hated the fact that he was. He just wanted to see his friend again...someone he truly cared about come back to him.   
  
“I’ll see you soon,” he said, the smile washing from his face as he hung up. 

“Kil-ouch !”, Eustass placed his hand on the top of his head where he felt a small bump coming.

He turned to his side to look at the laughing man whose shoulders were tense and his fist balled up at his sides. 

Killer’s case….Killer’s case was different. Not only did it affect his emotions, but it affected his speech. The other could barely speak with bursting into laughter and Kid was so frustrated that he couldn’t speak to the other that he made them learn sign language. He wanted Killer to be able to express himself better and Kid wasn’t the best at education. He was a pirate for fuck sakes but he would be damned if he didn’t do it for Killer. 

Even with that, Kid was still able to tell what the other meant without him signing anything, especially with how his body reacted. Kid didn’t need motions to know that Killer was upset that Kid was going to sacrifice something for him. 

Kid gritted his teeth,”Since when do you give me orders Killer?”, he asked. Killer signed,”You’re an idiot.” Kid waved Killer away with his hand,”my mind is already made and believe it or not…”, Kid closed his eyes and took a deep sigh, trying to muster the courage to say his next words,”I..t.. _ trust _ ..that this is right,” he said.    
  
He looked at Killer whose body language didn’t seem to change and Kid stood up,”I’m doing this for you. You..youre angry right now ! arent you? You’re upset at me. Don’t you want to be able to express that again? Don’t you want to be able to speak again? Its all for you !”, he said as he placed his hand on Killer’s shoulders. 

Killer’s shoulder’s relaxed as he felt Kid’s hands on him. He tried to say something but..laughter. 

  
  


The only thing that came out was laughter. Killer’s mind was aware of everything but of course some of his actions were involuntary. What Killer had felt this whole time was guilt. Guilt that he wasn’t strong enough to resist, guilt that there were lives of many innocent people on his hands.

It’s not like he was any stranger to murder with who his captain was but not even he would dare lay his hands on an innocent child. The thought that he could smile and laugh about the whole thing was sickening to him and yet...he couldn’t even express his disgust. All he could do was laugh.   
  
On one half, he was aware, but the other half of the time it was like another person had taken control over his body and he was looking from it on the inside. Killer had begun to think that this was his punishment and he had started to accept it. He didn’t want Kid to pay for it...Killer should be happy as he is now.   
  
Killer put his hand on his mask as he broke into a manic type of laughter and pushed Kid away.    
  
Kid grew concerned but stayed frozen as he watched Killer. He spoke to Killer,”Killer, please, I-”, he said, trying to take a step towards the man but stopped again. 

Killer managed to sign something to Kid as he removed his hands from his stomach from laughing,”Just give up on me captain.”

Kid grit his teeth again, clenched his fists, stomped up to Killer, then punched the man in the face, sending him on the ground laughing.

“What type of selfish pathetic shit is that ! This is not the Killer I grew up with. Why the hell are you so against this? Since when did you give up so easily,” he said, walking over and grabbing the man by his collar as he held up again to punch him again, but no punch came.    
  
“When the hell will you realize how important you are to me ! do you think I would do this for just anyone. I miss you, I miss your voice, I miss you scolding the shit out of me even when I don’t want, even when I fight back, I miss my best mate. I can’t just accept this part of you because you didn’t create this. Those assholes created this. They used you, thought of you as their murdering dog, made fun of you and yet the only thing you could do was laugh and obey their will. There is no fucking part of me that will ever be fine with the you that they created,” Kid said, his hand that was holding Killer’s collar starting to tremble.

Instead of lowering his fist down, he went to grab Killer’s helmet, took his mask off, and then threw it off to the side.    
  
“Look at you...you’re such an ugly cryer. Stop acting, you suck at it,” he said, then let Killer go.

Kid walked back to pick up his helmet and walked back to the other. Even though Killer stopped laughing, Kid still saw a smile on his face but, somehow, this smile was different. The smile the other adorned didn’t seem forced nor strained, like he was trying to fight back against the smile.

The Captain felt his heart skip a couple beats and he gulped as he walked forward and bent down, as if he was about to propose to the man and held out his helmet,”We’ll you get back, I swear.” Killer let out a couple of giggles as he nodded his head and took the mask away. He lunged forward to press his fist on Kid’s chest, right over the man’s heart. 

Kid couldn’t help a small smile come to his face as he did the same to Killer’s chest. This didn’t mean anything in sign language but it meant something to them. It meant a thousand words and more actually. 

It meant that I trust you. It meant I believe in you. It meant that, no matter what, we’ll always be there for each other. To them it was like a promise that they always made to each other. It was a gesture of reassurance to confirm just how much the two cared for each other. In deeper terms, it could be even seen as the two of them professing their love and care for each other without really saying it. Though, no verbal words were ever said to confirm such feelings, at least not yet.   
  
Such a simple action though made Kid’s heart warm and he had an even greater resolve to get his best friend back to his original condition. 

Killer would cry more than just a river of tears.

He would cry a whole ocean. 


End file.
